The loss or misplacement of the leg supports on wheelchairs has become a major problem in the institutional health care industry. In this environment, there may be dozens of wheelchairs in a small area, such as a rehabilitation area, or an open residential area, or even a dining area.
When transferring a patient from a wheelchair to another location such as a bed, chair, van or toilet, it is usually more convenient and sometimes necessary to remove the leg supports from interfering with patient movement or preventing the wheelchair from moving closely to an obstruction. This problem is present even in wheelchairs with swing out leg supports, such as manufactured by Invacare1 Corporation. 1. Invacar® is a registered trademark of Invacare Corporation of Elyria, Ohio.
As a practical matter, these crowded wheelchair areas result in the confusion of which leg supports go with which wheelchair because they are different from one wheelchair to another.
There have been prior attempts to solve these problems including providing brackets on the wheelchair frame as exemplified in U.S. Pat. No. 7,487,989 to Crosby, II issued on Feb. 10, 2009. This solution makes the problem worse by enlarging the envelope of the wheelchair.
Another attempt provides covers for the leg supports wherein the covers are locked to the wheelchair arms after removal. This system for a Footrest and Legrest Assembly Storage Bag for Wheelchair is manufactured by Amerisoft Medical at amerisoftmedical.com.
Another system is shown in the Google download of MedicalProductsDirect.com. for “Wheelchair Footstraps and Foot-Pad Accessories”.